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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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rshow55 - 09:53am Oct 22, 2003 EST (# 15398 of 15421)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

For a sense of what Lchic calls " fencing " and Cantabb calls his contribution - here's a convenient way to get both a detailed and statistical sense of Cantabb's posts up to October 10th - more recent ones have similarities to these:

http://www.mrshowalter.net/Cantabb_Srch_toOct_10.htm

rshow55 - 09:54am Oct 22, 2003 EST (# 15399 of 15421)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Interesting posts - interesting Editorials and OpEd page today.

Encouraging Words From Iran http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/opinion/22WED1.html

Swift-Footed W. By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/opinion/22KRIS.html

Let Someone Else Do the Talking By ALTON FRYE http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/opinion/22FRYE.html

Full Disclosure on Leaks By ROBERT BOOTH http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/opinion/22BOOT.html

rshow55 - 10:10am Oct 22, 2003 EST (# 15400 of 15421)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.NLcYbwJNQQn.0@.f28e622/17057

Right answers that are right "every reasonable way you look at them" can often converge - and such answers are precious - and worth working for. And the ways that they occur are forseeable - just as patterns of divergence are forseeable.

lchic - 09:56am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15345

Expert Systems http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~alison/ai3notes/chapter2_5.html

rshow55 - 09:57am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15346

Lchic and I have been working on a number of issues connected to the idea of getting "canonicity" - and stories that are true in the ways they need to be - that can lead to good outcomes. . . .

The standard pattern of narrative is set out in How a Story is Shaped. http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/ducksoup/555/storyshape.html - and NYT writers are all good at fitting that structure.

If you take the things that have happened during and since the Korean War that relate to the current interactions of N. Korea - and set out a "cast of characters" including every American, North Korean, South Korean, Chinese, and Russian leader - including Bush and Kim Jong Il - it is technically easy to write a set of stories - each based on the same facts - at least in the main - which can set any permutation of leaders in the role of either "the good guy" or "the bad guy."

You can do that with stories that are canonical in the sense that they cover exactly the same objective facts.

- -

I'm hoping for good outcomes now - and moving slowly. I'm having to worry about my judgement. Just now, it seems possible that everything I've hoped for from this thread might actually come to fruition, within sensible limits. That means a lot could go wrong - and it is time to worry.

I'm hoping for a " win-win " solution - that is useful - that shows that Casey's judgement in his suggestion to me, so many years ago, was good judgement.

rshow55 - 10:16am Oct 22, 2003 EST (# 15401 of 15421)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Perhaps this was a little indelicate:

14800 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.NLcYbwJNQQn.0@.f28e622/16511

But maybe not . . .

bbbuck - 10:17am Oct 22, 2003 EST (# 15402 of 15421)

lchic and showalter talk on the phone daily for an hour?

I didn't know that.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense